About

Reading Zimbabwe is an independent not-for-profit digital platform committed to discover and celebrate Zimbabwean literatures and to place them before the largest possible audience. The project was born out of a curiosity for a deeper understanding of the nature and extent of knowledge production, dissemination and use around the subject of 'Zimbabwe.' While this information is available on the internet, it is scattered, as such Reading Zimbabwe is the first archive of its kind, containing book metadata and its derivatives which we hope are relevant in understanding Zimbabwe and its myriad stories.

Of the many facets this project attempts to deal with, we will highlight four in particular:
● the paramount importance of hierarchies in the existing knowledge order,
● the relationship of reciprocal legitimation between knowledge and power,
● the transnational production of knowledge related to Zimbabwe, and
● the political economy of the commercialization of knowledge.

Development

We add new entries regularly, so please, always check back for updates. The site is undergoing testing while data build-up continues. Access is open source to individuals and institutions, cite us where possible.

Languages

The site is primarily indexed in English, Shona and Ndebele but inorder to complicate the reading of Zimbabwe, we have also included works in other languages including Czech, Danish, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese among others.

Library

Reading Zimbabwe is largely a virtual project. The ultimate aim is to build a physical People's Library to complement poorly resourced libraries in Zimbabwe. The People's Library will double up as a community center in Harare. We are collecting most of the books on this site so as to make them accessible to a community of readers that needs them. If you would like to make book donations, email us at readingzimbabwe[at]gmail.com